The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-09-21
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Professor Thomson says that wnen the
means of utilizing the power Of creating
! quick heating by electricity shall be bet
| ter understood it will be used in every
workshop for Welding, forging and other
purposes.
1t is the proper rule for each person to
sleep habitually till when awakening the
mind is clear, the brain is rested and the
body recupcratcd. Practically this can
not always be done, but it is the con-
dition to be sought after; it is the pur-
pose for which sleep was given. The
time may be five, six, eight or twelve
hours. No time is i'll spent by which
needed rest is obtained.
A natural curiosity has been discovert d
at Solothurn, Switzerland, the centre OF q
large watch manufacturing district. 1t
is the nest of wagtail, built wholly OF
long spiral steel shavings, with the least
part of vegetable or animal fibre used in
its construction. The steel shavings are
half milimetcr thick and about twelve
centimctcrs long. The nest has been
preserved in the Museum of Natural
History.
Max Won PettcnkolTcr,a German medi-
cal authority, considers that cholera IS
not contagious in the sense of being COM
municable directly from person to per
son, but that it belongs to the malarial
group of epidemics, the germs of which
find their way from the soil into the air,
and thence through the lungs into the
system. He regards good drainage and
pure water as the most efficient safe
guards against an outbreak.
The fifteen great American inventions
of world wide adoption are: l, the
cotton-gin; 9, the planting machine; 8,
the grass mower and reaper; 4, the rotary
printing press; 3, navigation by steam
6, the hot-air engine; Z, the sewing
machine; 8, the india-rubber industry
9, the machine manufacture of horse
shoes: 10, the sand-blast for carv-
ing; II, the gauge lathe; 12, the grain
elevator; 13, artificial ice-making on q
large scale; IA, the electric magnet and
its practical application, and 10, the
telephone.
DIR. A. B. Griffiths has demonstrated
that iron sulphate, or copperas, acts upon
the cellulose of the microscopic fungi
which prey upon plants, but does not af-
feet that of the higher plants themselves.
Is is therefore remedy for the most vir-
ulent epidemcs which attack field and
garden crops which destroy such para
site germs and fungi as the potato dis
ease, wheat mildew, etc. In ope English
district this years crop of winter beans
has failed on account OF a growth of fun
gus on the roots of the plants, disease
which timely application of iron sui
phate would have cured. 1t is also said
to be an efficient remedy for poison by
ivy: Dissolve a tablespoonful of cop
pcras in two-thirds of teacup of boiling
water and when cold apply with cloth
to the poisoned places.
The curious substance known as ozone,
the nature of which was so long mys-
stery, and about which so many conflict
ing hypothesis have been devised, is now,
SAYS the Lancet, becoming we'll known to
us. Ozone is denser form of oxygen.
Its specific gravity is "a, that OF common
oxygen being 16, and that of hydrogen
l. It is highly probable that its molecules
contain three similar oxygen atoms. In
the concentrated state it is a powerful
irritant poison, and is very unstable, de-
composing with explosion and with evo-
luton of heat, and exerting most power
full action on oxidizable materials. For
some time past it has been known that it
liduiies under the influence of combined
cold and pressure. The liquor is indigo
blue, and its vapor, in tolerably con-
centrated state, has a color which can
only be compared to that of an Italian
sky. 1t is very dangerous substance to
work with.